Palomar to Anza flight, 32 miles

Forecast looked pretty decent for Marshall and Laguna. Concern for Marshall was late switch from north and NE wind after San Gorgonio Mountain. There was nice convergence along I-10 and Joshua Tree after that. For Laguna surface wind looked a bit strong in the morning, but supposed to get lighter by afternoon and there was also light head north wind at the top of the life.

I picked Laguna just because it's been a while when I flew there. Wrong choice! it was blowing 20 mph gusting to 25 in a morning and we end up flying Palomar instead. This was my second time flying Palomar and first time going over the back. Dmitry outlined a pretty straight forward plan, go to observatory, get high, move to the back ridge, get high and so on.

Palomar launch

Pilots getting ready at Palomar

We launched around 12:00 into very nice conditions and went to 6K right away, but wind at launch switched to catabatic, so half of our group have to wait 20 min before they joined us. Base get higher and after good climb near launch to 7K we moved up a spine and got another climb to 8K, but instead of going to observatory we all split for unknown reason. Phil and Dmitry went west, other pilots east along the ridge and I just stayed in the same area.

Phil on Zeno

On glide to observatory

There was high clouds moving in, thin enough, but still reducing heating and thermal strength. After one more climb to 9K I glided toward observatory. Wind was around 5-10 mph from the north, so I have to fly up wind. As Dmitry predicted there was good thermal waiting for me at observatory. Climbed to 10.5K and went to north ridge chasing sailplanes. There was at least 3 or 4 of them marking thermals along the ridge. It's always intimidating to stay in the same themal with them. I can even see pilot was flying by and taking picture of me!

Sailplane

There was broken convergence marked by small pieces of clouds to the north, so I just try to stay as close to convergence as possible. It was quite turbulent in some places, got a full frontal at one point, ouch. By the time I came to Anza convergence fell apart and thermals was small and nasty. I did not want to push low into foothills and landed into strong 15 mph west wind.

Thanks a lot to Bill and Carolyn for picking me up, no one else flew OTB.

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/1937941

Palomar flight, 10 miles

Palomar launch

My first time flying from Palomar. It's around 2:00 hours and 115 miles drive for me. Good large launch, excellent LZ, but XC potential is not very interesting. Site is located in the middle between Horse/Laguna Mt. and Marshall/Crestline and typically way off of east/west convergence line, so there is no point to start XC here unless this site is next to your home. Longest flight in Leonardo 33 miles by Eric Kolberg to Borrero Springs track

Palomar flying along the crest

Fly-in was a great event with many old and new friends. Conditions was weak during afternoon, but improving later in the day. I was able to punch though the inversion and flew with Dmitry few miles east along the crest and then come back. Nice party afterwards.

Palomar LZ

My track: http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/1085496